Pure OCD Treatment - How to do ERP for Pure OCD

In this video, I talk about how to do ERP for Pure O OCD. This is the third of three videos and in this video, I provide a general explanation of how to apply Exposure and Response Prevention to the treatment process of Pure OCD.

Video Transcript

00:00 All right. Hey there and welcome to part three of this series on treating pure ocd. My name is Makati. I'm a licensed clinical social worker down in southern California and in part one and two I really talked about, you know, what is pure ocd, why it's kind of a myth. And then in part two I talked about mental compulsion's and in this part I want to talk about how we do Erp with someone who's experiencing, you know, the quote pure ocd. Now again, first and foremost, we need to understand that pure ocd is not just purely obsessional, there's almost always compulsion's involved and the kind of the gold standard for treatment when it comes to ocd, is something called exposure and response prevention, meaning that you're going to expose yourself to the feared stimulus and then you're going to prevent yourself from responding in a way in, in a compulsive way, in this situation, right?

00:51 But in a way that's going to really reinforce that fear. So the quick example I can give you know, and the, the most standard example that we have in the OSD field is the idea of contamination. Oh, city as something people are very aware of, and so with contamination, OCD, you'll have the person who has a fear of contamination, they get anxious, they wash your hands and get relief, and so Erp for them would look something like, you know, they get the thought about being contaminated, they get anxious and they prevent themselves from washing their hands to habituate to that anxiety and ultimately not reinforce the fear and the more and more they don't reinforce the fear, the more they're allowed to face it. And then eventually realized that there was nothing to be afraid of in the first place. Now when it comes to pro city, it's a little bit trickier, but the process is still exactly the same.

01:37 You have the thought, you have the anxiety, and then you have the compulsion. The compulsion is, like I said, are almost always mental. So the person, the individual that's experiencing, um, you know, these thoughts is going to need to be very clear on what behaviors they do to try to neutralize those thoughts. And then what we have to do is kind of systematically help them eliminate those behaviors, kind of one at a time. And so when we talk about things like thought suppression, one of the things is actually allowing the thoughts to be there, right? And not pushing them away. So that's going to be one of the exposures that takes place. And then also the, um, you know, when we talk about avoidance and, and, you know, not avoiding things that actually trigger those thoughts, those are going to be other exposures. And then, um, then we look at the things they do for reassurance.

02:22 So any kind of reassurance they get and one of the biggest reassurances that people seek with curiosity is often from their loved ones. So, you know, I can't tell you how many times I've had moms who have harm ocd and they get reassurance from their significant others or even their children, right? You know, like, Oh, you know, uh, I do think I'm a good mom. And then, and then when their spouse says, yeah, I think you're a great mom. That helps reassure and alleviate them from those, those thoughts that they're having, which then reinforces that cycle. So if you do, you know, seek out reassurance, especially from other family members, that's one of those things that you're going to need to eliminate the one of those behaviors you're going to need to eliminate to actually help that habituation process take place. So when it comes to the Erp with, uh, with pure ocd, really the process is exactly the same as any other form of OCD.

03:13 That's why I don't like to, you know, kind of like sub categorize this because again, it's all one big cycle that, that really is the same for every single person. It's really just about figuring out what behaviors you do that reinforce your fear and then really starting to work at eliminating those behaviors, allowing habituation to take place. And then from there, the more and more it takes place, the more and more you're going to realize that all that stuff going on with those city is just a bunch of noise that you don't need to pay attention to. So hopefully you found this little series of helpful. Again, below this video I have some links where I have further trainings and resources that will help you out on your journey to recovery from ocd. And, um, if you liked this video series, please again subscribe to the channel because I release new videos and trainings and be sure to like it and comment below. So it's been a pleasure to be here with you and I will see you guys on the next video in the next training series.

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